At last I have news of a new album and the series of reissues I talked about in my last epistle.
The long silence following my last on-line message was due to the fact that the distributor I had planned to work sank shortly afterwards without a trace! Ah, the glamorous and exciting world of the music business.
So I had to look for a label that I could rely on to release what I want, when I need it and I believe I have found it in the form of Syborg, a German label who also have In My Rosary in their catalogue, icons of dark neofolk who also happen to be jolly good friends of mine. The label’s website can be found at www.syborgmusic.de where you will also find an on-line shop which promises to bring their CDs direct to your letterbox.

The first PR release will be a slightly different edition of ‘Re-Animator’ with a few bonus tracks (alternative mixes of ‘Abdul Alhazred’ and ‘Swamp Girl’), a very slightly different mix of ‘Assassins’ and it will kick off with the title track instead of ‘Charles Dexter Ward’ which now appears later in the running order. The first 500 copies will also include a bonus sampler CD featuring one track from each of the reissues that are planned to appear over the next two years at the rate of one every three months or so.
These definitive reissues will have new cover artwork and booklets with photos from the period featuring sleeve notes by yours truly.
I plan to make subtle but significant improvements to some of the tracks on these early albums as I did for ‘Duel’, ‘Gaslight Tales’ and ‘Strychnine…and Other Potent Poisons’.
But those who would like to have only the retouched tracks or the rarer tracks will be able to download these separately from AppleiTunes and other digital providers without having to buy the whole CD again. The first reissue will appear in January and the albums will reappear in chronological order.

DUEL (73 mins) A re-pressing of the ‘improved’ version released by the Greek label Haunted Forest in 2003
+ Rock Radio Sessions (7 TRACKS)
+ Knights (original LP version) + King Is Dead (demo) + Crimes of
Dr Cream (demo)

MASQUE (74 mins) New running order with ‘The Ratcatcher’s Daughter’ and ‘The Sea Captain’ in the main album replacing ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Grantchester Fields’ which will appear as bonus tracks.
+ 4 acoustic radio session tracks (from the same period with Valerie Franco – originally issued as bonus tracks on the ‘Strychnine’ album)

ROARING BOYS/SARABANDE* (74mins)
+ Down To The Bone
(*excluding the cover versions ‘Me & Devil Blues’, I’m Not Like Everybody Else’ + ‘Meadows of the Sea’ which have been re-recorded and will appear on the ‘Strychnine’ CD which collects all the cover versions on one album)

GARGOYLES/PAVANE (80 mins)

STRYCHNINE…And Other Potent Poisons (56 mins + extras) Re-pressing of the Italian CD
+ I’m Not Like Everybody Else (re-recording)
+ Meadows Of The Sea (re-recording)
+ Death Of A Clown
+ Dazed and Confused

The Return of the Werewolf!!
But even before the first of these reissues rolls off the presses some of you may be pleased to hear that a private pressing of my very first album, ‘The Werewolf Of London’ will be available in a strictly limited edition of 300 copies for collectors only. It will not be available in the shops or on-line at Amazon. I had hoped that this early effort [released under the band name Midnight Rags] would disappear into the mists of prehistory but the price people have been charging for original copies on vinyl on ebay and a one man campaign on MySpace by a collector in Texas (of all places) has persuaded me to disinter this skeleton from the family mausoleum and make it available for the first time on CD in the best packaging I can. It has been painstakingly and tastefully re-mastered by Ralf Schuessler who used the latest software to remove all clicks and surface noise from the original vinyl and the album has been fleshed out with unreleased tracks from a planned second Midnight Rags album and several alternative versions from the first edition on Ace Records (the one with the black and white cover).

The full track listing is:
THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON (PRASCDR 001) 74 mins
Blades of Battenburg/Brain Police/Oscar Automobile/Flying Ace/The Cars That Ate New York/Public Enemy/Werewolves of London/Angel/Lon Chaney/Alcatraz/Jack Daniels
Bonus tracks:
Outtakes from first version of the LP on Ace: ‘Oscar Automobile’, ‘Werewolves of London’, ‘Witching Hour’ + ‘Girls’
Out takes from unreleased second album ‘The Ghoul’, ‘Cadillac Moon’, ‘The Old Dark House’, ‘Cavalier’, ‘Mad Elaine’ and ‘Sword and Sorcery’.
Though I can’t say I’m exactly proud of some of this stuff, I have to admit I took a perverse sort of pleasure in returning to this album after all these years, dusting it down and making it presentable.

METHODS OF PAYMENT
As I said, this will only be available for a short time direct from the PRAS. Price will be 15 euros inc postage within Europe or 20 euros (£14) to the UK. Please allow 3-5 days for delivery to countries outside Germany and up to 21 days to USA and Australia.
Payment can be made with a credit card via paypal using the e-mail address rolandtowers@yahoo.co.uk on the paypal website or via www.GaslightRecords.de (where you only have to click on the album of your choice), or by making a bank to bank transfer (write to rolandtowers@yahoo.co.uk for our bank details), or by sending euros or any equivalent currency of your choice to the NEW PRAS ADDRESS in Germany which is - Postfach 111064, D-76060 Karlsruhe, Germany.
All of these methods will also be available if you want to buy any of the reissues listed above direct from the PRAS, but we will only have a limited amount of copies to offer by mailorder so if you can support your local record shop or on-line retailer (such as Amazon) then please do so. Whatever method you chose, please e-mail us to ensure we have a record of your order and can make every effort to ensure that it can be posted to you the same day.

New Album
I am finishing the new album, tentatively titled ‘Nevermore’, for release in March. It is quite a departure from ‘Re-Animator’, being largely acoustic, but with the band. In short, it’s a blend of ‘A Cabinet Of Curiosities’ with ‘Gargoyles’. There isn’t a unifying theme this time, although there is a song based on a story by Poe, another alluding obliquely to Poe in a comic book kind of way and a short suite based on Jules Verne’s gruff antihero Captain Nemo. Intrigued? I hope so.
You will find a taster for the album on the preview promo CD included with the German edition of ‘Re-Animator’.

My Space
My new MySpace site (designed and maintained by the inexhaustibly enthusiastic Dexter) has logged over 1200 visitors since it was launched a few weeks ago and now has a few features that we hope you will find stimulating.
You will also find a link to an on-line discography with sound samples and another link to the PR Forum www.dunkelromantik.de (NOT www.schattentanz.de as I had previously announced. Sorry!)
I’m particularly pleased to see other artists linking up and leaving messages acknowledging me as an influence on their own music which is very satisfying, although I’m beginning to feel like the godfather of goth as most of them are so young! By the way, the forum will feature a free download every month so you can add a rare track to your collection for gratis if you wish. The first track to be made available was ‘Jack Daniels’ from the upcoming Werewolf-CD and the next free download will be ?

CONCERTS
Through the MySpace site I have been contacted by a promoter in Greece who has asked to play a concert in Athens in February. I am hoping that this might be the start of a new cycle of live appearances with a new acoustic ensemble and my band. I hope to appear with the former in smaller clubs and keep the latter for festivals. I am already planning the set list which will concentrate on songs from the new albums ‘Nevermore’, ‘Re-Animator’ and ‘Pavane’ with just a few of the old songs sprinkled here and there. But my main aim is to demonstrate that I am writing new and hopefully even better songs now than I used to.

BOOKS
If you like my music, you may also be interested in some of the books I have had published recently. ‘In The Minds Of Murderers’, my book on the fascinating art of criminal profiling and criminal psychology was published in September by Arcturus in Britain with a foreword by FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood.
Also in September and published by Arcturus was ‘The Guitar Chord Book’ for which I drew 400 chord diagrams – quite a challenge for an artist who rarely used more than 5 chords in a song! Actually, it proved to be a very beneficial project for me. It forced me to finally study and understand how chords are constructed and it introduced me to many new chords which have increased my own musical vocabulary. So if you hear a Bm7th add 13th on the next album you’ll know it isn’t a wrong note. Roland has found the lost chord!

Maybe I will see you at a concert in the New Year, but if not, please keep in touch by e-mail (rolandtowers@yahoo.co.uk) or write to the new PRAS postbox. I’d love to hear from you.